Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/41

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

order it to be burnt by the common hangman (Egerton MS. 917, f. 108); but since then it has been frequently reprinted both in Dublin and in London.

In 1647, after the conclusion of the peace between Ormonde and the parliament, Temple was appointed a commissioner for the government of Munster, and on 16 Oct. the following year was made joint commissioner with Sir W. Parsons for the administration of the great seal of Ireland. But, having voted with the majority on 5 Dec. in favour of the proposed compromise with Charles, he was excluded from further attendance in the house; and during the next four years he took no part in public affairs, residing the while quietly in London. His personal experience, however, of the circumstances attending the outbreak of the rebellion led to his appointment on 21 Nov. 1653 as a commissioner ‘to consider and advise from time to time how the titles of the Irish and others to any estate in Ireland, and likewise their delinquency according to their respective qualifications, might be put in the most speedy and exact way of adjudication consistent with justice.’ His labours accomplished, he returned to England in the following year, and, the government of Ireland having grown into a settled condition, he expressed his willingness to resume the regular execution of his old office of master of the rolls. He accordingly repaired thither in June 1655, bearing a highly recommendatory letter from Cromwell to the lord-deputy Fleetwood and council of state in his favour (Commonwealth Papers, P.R.O. Dublin, A/28, 26, f. 60). In addition to an increased official salary he received from time to time several grants of money for special services rendered by him. In September that year he was joined with Sir R. King, Benjamin Worsley, and others in a commission for letting and setting of houses and lands belonging to the state in the counties of Dublin, Kildare, and Carlow, and on 13 June 1656 was appointed a commissioner for determining all differences among the adventurers concerning lands, &c. (ib. A/26, 24, ff. 115, 227). As a recompense for his services he received on 6 July 1658 a grant of two leases for twenty-one years, the one comprising the town and lands of Moyle, Castletown, Park, &c., adjoining the town of Carlow, amounting to about 1,490 acres, in part afterwards confirmed to him under the act of settlement on 18 June 1666; the other of certain lands in the barony of Balrothery West, co. Dublin, to which were added those of Lispoble in the same county on 30 March 1659 for a similar term of years. He obtained license to go to England for a whole year or more on 21 April 1659 (Smyth, Law Officers, p. 67). At the Restoration he was confirmed in his office of master of the rolls, sworn a member of the privy council, appointed a trustee for the '49 officers, and on 4 May 1661 elected, with his eldest son William, to represent co. Carlow in parliament (Official Return of M.P.s, Ireland, pt. ii. p. 607). On the 6th of the same month he obtained for the payment of a fine of 540l. a reversionary lease from the queen mother Henrietta Maria of the park of Blandesby or Blansby, Pickering, Yorkshire, for a term of forty years. He received a confirmation in perpetuity of his lands in co. Dublin, including those of Palmerstown, under the act of settlement on 29 July 1666; to which were added on 20 May 1669 others in counties Kilkenny, Meath, Westmeath, and Dublin. Other grants followed, viz. on 3 May 1672 of 144 acres formerly belonging to the Phœnix Park, and on 16 Nov. 1675 of certain lands, fishings, &c., in and near Chapelizod. He was appointed vice-treasurer of Ireland in 1673, but died in 1677, and was buried beside his father in Trinity College near the campanile, having that year made a benefaction of 100l. to the college to be laid out in certain buildings, entitling him and his heirs to bestow two handsome chambers upon such students as they desired.

By his wife Mary, daughter of Dr. John Hammond [q. v.], of Chertsey, Surrey, who died at Penshurst in Kent in November 1638, Temple had, besides two sons and a daughter who died young, Sir William, the statesman (1628–1699), noticed separately; Sir John (see below); Martha [see under Temple, Sir William, (1628–1699)]; and Mary, who married (1) Abraham Yarner, and (2), on 19 Dec. 1693, Hugh Eccles.

Sir John Temple (1632–1704), having received an education in England qualifying him for the bar, was on 10 July 1660 created solicitor-general of Ireland (patent, 1 Feb. 1661; Smyth, Law Officers, p. 177), and in March following appointed a commissioner for executing the king's ‘Declaration’ of 30 Nov. 1660 touching the settlement of the country. He was returned M.P. for Carlow borough on 8 May 1661, and was elected speaker on the first day (6 Sept.) of the second sessions of parliament in the place of Sir A. Mervyn (cf. Carte, Life of Ormonde, App. pp. 20–1), being shortly afterwards knighted. His reputation as a lawyer stood very high, and there was some talk in October 1679 of making him attorney-general of England (Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. pt. i. p. 476). He was continued in his office of solicitor-